Willie ( Axis ) plays Larry ( Soviets ) in FITE2 contest

[loveman2]

ARMY GROUP SOUTH

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T5 round 1 and Willie is approaching Orsha and I'm going to use the major river to defend behind although Willie should have no trouble leaping over the river using his engineers. I'm going to have to displace the Soviet units in the south half of this image because the Axis forces have very little to prevent them from advancing south from where they are right now. So to prevent the destruction of all those units I've elected to reposition them to the east behind the major river.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T5 round 1 and this is what Minsk looks like right now. I was successful in moving almost all the units defending the city to the east but there were some units in and around the city that couldn't be moved, either because they were in reorg or are in a garrison mode. There was one Soviet airborne unit that got trapped to the SE of the city that's about to get destroyed. I dropped a lot of bridges in and around the city but Willie has had his engineers busy repairing them but as a plus there's a significant stretch of rail lines that need to be repaired before the Axis side can use it. That should take him several turns.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T5 round 1 and this is a spot NW of Odessa where a sizeable group of Soviet units has been trapped and is now being slowly reduced in size and number of units. Willie will clean up this group in the next couple of turns. There are some fixed artillery units guarding several of the river crossings but they shouldn't be much of a problem for Willie's units. I've dropped a lot of the bridges in this area and it's going to take Willie several turns to fix them all.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T5 round 1 and this is what it looks like near Odessa right now. The Soviet units in the north part of this image need to be repositioned since the Axis units have forced their way across the major river in the NW part of this image. Willie will probably outflank my defenders by going around the major river defenders and advancing into the terrain that's mostly clear near Rosdeinaya. That's what I would do. Willie will be approaching Odessa soon.

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[loveman2]

Army group centre battles around Minsk

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[loveman2]

Larry is doing well slowing the German advance, he will no doubt defend the river line at Orsha and the city of Smolensk in the centre.

Army group North have take Riga and advance towards the baltic capital !!!

Army group south have created a small pocket and are advancing eastwards at great speed !!

Willie

[larryfulkerson]

It's now T6 round 1 and this is a partial list of my losses so far. As you can see I've lost over 16K of my Rifle Squad with double penetration light machine guns. LOL. But there's over 65K of them assigned and I have over 36K of them on hand. So no crisis. Willie is doing really well.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T6 round 1 and this is an image of the front lines right now. Willie is zipping right along, doing a wonderful job of clearing the terrain, repairing the rails and fixing all the broken bridges. He's got bou cou bombers on INT missions and I get air struck when I move a unit about a third of time I move somebody, especially those moving by rail or stepping on an airfield hex. I'm trying desperately to get a good use out of the rivers and marshy hexes to defend behind but Willie just goes around my road blocks and uses his engineers to leap over rivers and get into my backfield. I'm having to displace and reposition my units constantly. I'm trying to be careful about dropping the bridge after I cross it so as not to leave clear passage for the Axis forces. The weather is about 7/10 cloudy with scattered rain.

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[loveman2]

ARMY GROUP NORTH

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[loveman2]

ARMY GROUP CENTRE CLEARS MINSK

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and Willie has reached Orsha already. He's moving a lot faster than I had expected. Some of my units are only just arriving in this AO. There are several of my units that need to reposition to plug all the gaps in my lines. I'm trying to use the Dnepr river to defend behind but Willie will surely use his engineers and pontoon units to leap over the river and get into my backfield. Fortunately, I haven't moved anybody yet I can fix my front line before Willie will get there. For all the good that might do.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and here's a view of what seems to be going on with the Soviet Air Force. Here's a list of the Soviet squadrons as they are right now and you can see that there's a great deal of them that are red and yellow but a lot of them are green and ready for duty on the front. I believe it's still too early to employ them in combat because of the huge difference between the Axis air shock ( 140 ) and the Soviet air shock ( 80 ). I'd rather wait for more favorable conditions. Also, I'd like to deploy all the aircraft in the same turn rather than deal them out piecemeal a few at a time. More mutual support that way. A lot of those aircraft squadrons that are red are those squadrons that were shot down earlier in the game. They will need several turns of rest in order to turn green again.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and this is what's going on north of Leningrad. The Finns haven't attacked me yet and I haven't attacked them because doing that will draw them out of garrison mode and make them active. I'm comfortable with the situation as it is right now and don't need major changes. The areas that seem clear of Axis units are actually loaded with Axis units but they aren't visible to me yet.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and this is what's going on near Pskov right now. Willie has reached Pskov already and so far I've been holding him back. But toward the bottom of the image you can see how the Axis forces have already leaped over the major rivers and creeks etc. and are nearing the eastern edge of the forests into the clear terrain on the far side. His push may accelerate when he reaches the clear terrain. I've got lots of troops to reposition real quick.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and this is what's going on near Staryye Dorogi right now ( north of Kiev ). I've been using the terrible terrain to slow down the Axis advance but this is the far east edge of that terrible terrain and once across the rivers and creeks there's lots of clear terrain so I need to do what I can to keep his troops on the west side of all the major rivers in this AO.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and this is the reinforcements I received this turn. Notice that the overwhelming majority of them are cherry-red. They are going to need several turns of rest before they will be useful.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and this is some of the losses I've had so far. Most of the aircraft losses were in the first several turns. I've lost a lot more T-34 tanks than I was expecting. I have so few of them left that I might ought to pull those units that have T-34's to the rear to save those I have left.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's still T7 round 1 and I've been moving units and I've arrived at the smaller NKVD units formation to be moved and I just happened to find an empty port on the west coast of Lithuania and moved into it. I'm not sure what effect this will have on Willie but I'm thinking he's going to react for sure. I'm wondering if I can do it again with another unit and so on to give Willie something to do.

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[Cpl GAC]

Yeah, he's not gonna like that unit you put there. At all.